Extra Credit
by Dragon Elexus
Summary: Two rather odd new students show up at Connie's school. Connie's never met them before, except in a way she kind of has.


**Author's Note** : So here's the deal. Nearly a full year ago on Tumblr- just after Keystone Motel aired, if I remember correctly- a post showed up on my dash asking for a way to get more Ruby/Sapphire stuff without first putting Garnet through extreme emotional pain. One (joking) suggestion LadyRavenEye made was 'they pose as children at a school'.

I wrote this fic in response. I'd totally forgotten about it, but someone brought it up in passing, so I figured I'd finally post it here. Little funny looking back on it, considering the whole 'posing as humans' thing from "Hit the Diamond". Anyway, hope you enjoy.

oOoOo

 **Extra Credit**

Connie wasn't really paying attention when her teacher, Mr. Henderson, said they were having a couple new students join in that day. She was laying her stuff out for class absently, while her mind was busily churning over the day's schedule. Ever since her parents had become aware of her sword training, they'd let her drop a couple of the extracurriculars she wasn't interested in, but it was still difficult juggling everything on top of school work, and she wanted to make sure she still had time for the new math assignment they'd been given that day.

Neither did she really notice when the two new kids finally walked in. And sure, in the back of her head, she recognized that one had had blue skin, and the other had red skin- like, _actually red_ , not just 'reddish'- which was definitely kind of odd, but she didn't pay it much attention to it. That would be pretty rude.

It was only when the teacher finally said, "So, Ruby, Sapphire, why don't you tell us all something about yourselves?" that her head snapped up.

The pair. Well. They were short, and well… they did look like kids, but Connie would be hard pressed to give a specific age. One was entirely red- not just their skin, but their shirt, their pants, their headband, even their hair had a distinctly red tinge to it. And the girl next to her was all blue, including the poofy almost-white hair and the dress which was waaaaay too elaborate for any kind of school setting. The were standing very close together, almost pressing into each other.

The two looked out at the class, then looked at each other.

"Um," the one Connie could only assume to be Ruby said. "My name is Ruby. And I like sports! Yeah! And…" she looks around wildly, as though trying to remember the name of a single sport. "Like volleyball! _And wrestling_!"

"I'm Sapphire," the other said. Something like a smile twitched on her face. "I like skating."

The teacher waited to see if they were going to add anything else. They didn't. "Okay, then," Mr. Henderson said, and points them to a couple open seats near the back of the classroom. "Why don't you just sit down, and we'll start with the lesson…?"

Connie had always done her best to focus and pay diligent attention in class, but she could not, for the life of her, recall a single thing that happened in that lesson. She spent the entire time looking over her shoulders at the new 'students'. Ruby and Sapphire, in turn, didn't seem to be paying attention to the teacher either. Ruby was spending her entire time looking around the classroom with wide-eyes, leg twitching anxiously beneath the desk. Sapphire's face was almost entirely hidden beneath her bangs, yet somehow her gaze still seemed fixed on an unknown place in the distance. (At least, when she wasn't sneaking glances at Ruby and stifling giggles).

But then, suddenly, Sapphire turned to look directly at Connie. She nudged Ruby, who looked her way. Connie felt a weird emotion surge- embarrassment? Uncertainty? But then the two broken into bright smiles. Ruby even winked.

After that, Connie turned back to the front, and tried her best to take notes.

Once the bell finally rung, Connie hurriedly stuffed everything in her bag, not even bothering to attempt her usual neatness. As everyone- including the teacher- surged out of the room for lunch, she went to go and find Ruby and Sapphire. It wasn't hard. They hadn't moved from their desks. (They had a single backpack between them, Connie finally noticed. It was shaped like a hamburger.)

Of the million's of questions that had spun through Connie's mind for the past forty minutes, the first one that came out of her mouth was, " _Garnet?_ "

Sapphire smirked, and Ruby laughed. "Kind of," Ruby said. "But you know. Not really."

"Nice to officially meet you, Connie," Sapphire said. She held out a hand; Connie took it. Beneath the silky smooth glove, it felt ice-cold.

"Same," Connie managed, nodding over at Ruby. "But- um- why. Why. What. What are you doing _at-"_

 _"_ There's a Gem here," Sapphire said, and Connie remembered what Steven had told her about Future Vision. "We do not know where exactly, so we are retrieving it." _  
_

"Okay," Connie said. "But why-"

"We're going undercover," said Ruby. Maybe it wasn't a Future Vision thing- maybe her questions were just obvious. "We didn't want to 'cause a scene', so we're posing as students. How are we doing?"

Ruby's expression was so earnest, so bright, that Connie felt compelled to say, "Um. Pretty good. But why-" Then she realized. "This was Steven's idea, wasn't it?"

A pair of nods.

"He doesn't want us accidentally destroying your school," said Sapphire, dead-pan.

Connie sighed, and massaged the bridge of her nose. She was thankful, she really was, but- "Why didn't you just send Steven here, instead?"

Steven, she knew, wasn't exactly an expert in Gem-retrival just yet, at least compared to the rest of the Crystal Gems. But he'd gotten pretty good, and Connie knew that the two of them made an excellent team. They were jam buds, the sword and the shield. She honestly felt kind of annoyed about not getting told.

It turned out, however, that Steven was sick. "With a fever of 103 degrees." Ruby scoffed. "Which is apparently high? Pearl won't even let him out of the bed, and this is an emergency."

"Steven did send you a message," began Sapphire. "But you-

"Didn't get it," Connie finished in unison. "I have to keep my phone off at school."

Not that the two Gems understood that, of course. Gems didn't _get_ things like that. Especially not the two Gems who made up _Garnet_. They might have been child sized, but how on Earth Steven could expect them to realistically pretend to be actual children was **beyond** her.

She was trying to work this out, when suddenly the two gems were making a beeline for the door, hand-and-hand. "Where're you going?"

They looked at her.

"To find the Gem," they said, in perfect unison. It should have been creepy, but somehow, it wasn't.

And then, before Connie could say anything, Ruby said, "Aren't you coming?"

Connie's hand tightened around her bag strap. "What?"

"You will come," Sapphire said, and there was no question in your voice. "We will need your help."

Well, how was she supposed to argue with that? All Connie wished was that she had packed Rose's sword.


End file.
